Mangalore to have STP this year

BANGALORE: Karnataka will have its fifth Software Technology Park in Mangalore by November 2000. This was announced by Union Minister for Information Technology Pramod Mahajan here on Friday while laying the foundation stone for the Cyber Park to come up in Bangalore. The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) already has opened STPs or is in the process of opening one in Bangalore, Mysore, Hubli and Manipal.

Mr Mahajan also announced that his ministry would build the network for the proposed computerisation of Karnataka’s treasury department. He called the IT players in the country to submit their opinions and reactions to the Information Technology Bill, placed in the Parliament. He said that the Bill was expected to be passed by the Parliament by May 17.

Mr Mahajan said that in order to improve the penetration of IT in the country, there was a strong need to increase the power generation. The Human Resource Ministry and the industry should also play a role in generating more and better engineers to meet the demand of knowledge workers, he said.

While announcing the BangloreIT.com 2000, to be held in the city from November 1 to 5, Karnataka chief minister said that the entire records of land rights in the state would be computerised by March 2001.

Earlier, Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Ananth Kumar gave away the Karnataka Best Software Export Awards. In the Indian companies category, Wipro bagged the first prize, followed by Infosys, while in the multi-national company category, IBM lead with i-flex (erstwhile CITIL) coming second.